This is rather amusing, since the Dems were big Silver boosters in 2012, when he predicted for the New York Times that Barack Obama had a 90 percent chance of being reelected.

His brilliance has apparently faded since then, at least in Democratic eyes, now that he is forecasting a Republican takeover of the Senate this fall.

The flap reflects the special aura that surrounds Silver, a somewhat geeky data whiz who sees himself on a mission to improve journalism. He does not exactly lack for confidence, having declared two-thirds of the op-ed columnists for such major papers as the Washington Post and New York Times to be purveyors of crap.

Silver is a bona fide brand at a time when journalism is increasingly being built around the personas of its most high-profile practitioners.
Silver also unveiled his prediction on “This Week,” the Sunday morning show on ABC, which owns ESPN.

And that prompted the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to issue a detailed rebuttal. That’s right, the committee went into damage-control mode to respond to a pundit.

It’s not like Silver has crawled onto some limb; many political prognosticators say the GOP is favored to win the six seats it needs to take back the Senate. But Silver going public became a political event demanding a response.

First, the Silver analysis:

“We think the Republicans are now slight favorites to win at least six seats and capture the chamber. The Democrats’ position has deteriorated somewhat since last summer, with President Obama’s approval ratings down to 42 or 43 percent from an average of about 45 percent before. Furthermore, as compared with 2010 or 2012, the GOP has done a better job of recruiting credible candidates, with some exceptions.

“As always, we encourage you to read this analysis with some caution. Republicans have great opportunities in a number of states, but only in West Virginia, South Dakota, Montana and Arkansas do we rate the races as clearly leaning their way. Republicans will also have to win at least two toss-up races, perhaps in Alaska, North Carolina or Michigan, or to convert states such as New Hampshire into that category. And they’ll have to avoid taking losses of their own in Georgia and Kentucky, where the fundamentals favor them but recent polls show extremely competitive races.”

Silver is especially bullish on GOP chances in West Virginia, South Dakota and Montana, red states where Democratic incumbents are retiring and where “we think the Republicans are poised to nominate equal or superior candidates in each state.”

That must have stung. National Journal has the Democratic response:

“In an unusual step, the executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on Monday issued a rebuttal the famed statistician's prediction—made a day earlier—that Republicans were a ‘slight favorite’ to retake the Senate. Silver was wrong in 2012, the political committee's Guy Cecil wrote in a memo, and he'll be wrong again in 2014.

“The DSCC memo took pains to compliment Silver, saying his work at newly launched FiveThirtyEight was ‘groundbreaking.’ And the group's main critique—that Silver's model relies on a smattering of haphazard early polling in battleground states—is one that he himself acknowledges is a limitation.

“But the comprehensive pushback from Cecil, the powerful committee's key staffer, is a testament both to the influence Silver wields and the sensitivity of Senate Democrats to the perception they're losing their grip on the upper chamber.”

Fairplay posts should be read with caution, as he's known to deceptively edit stuff that looks cut and pasted.

Anyway, what's odd about what is posted is that there is actually no direct quote from any D "slamming" Silver or appearing to be angry at him, as alleged. There is a quote from Krugman at the very end, but that seems to be a comment about the site in general.

Fairplay posts should be read with caution, as he's known to deceptively edit stuff that looks cut and pasted.

Anyway, what's odd about what is posted is that there is actually no direct quote from any D "slamming" Silver or appearing to be angry at him, as alleged. There is a quote from Krugman at the very end, but that seems to be a comment about the site in general.

That's because there isn't quotes of Dem's slamming Silver.

Dems have basically said this: "He has been wrong before, we have worked hard in the past and beat his predictions, we can work hard and do it again.

Unlike the GOP during the presidential campaign where they lived in a created delusion of "unskewed" polls.

__________________
"Most of us can, as we choose, make of this world either a palace or a prison."
–John Lubbock

Of course, they were "unskewing" before unskewing was cool. Back in 2004 they were convinced they won but for the Diebold voting machine scandal that the GOP pulled off to steal the election away from Kerry.

Dems have basically said this: "He has been wrong before, we have worked hard in the past and beat his predictions, we can work hard and do it again.

Unlike the GOP during the presidential campaign where they lived in a created delusion of "unskewed" polls.

I saw a story on this yesterday and the "Dem reaction" (the reaction of the pundit interviewed) was basically, "Yeah, but its early and there's time to turn it around." It wasn't an attack on Silver or saying the method was BS.

Of course, they were "unskewing" before unskewing was cool. Back in 2004 they were convinced they won but for the Diebold voting machine scandal that the GOP pulled off to steal the election away from Kerry.

Yes, there was quite a national furor over the election being stolen from Kerry. It was just like 2000 I recall.

Fairplay posts should be read with caution, as he's known to deceptively edit stuff that looks cut and pasted.

Anyway, what's odd about what is posted is that there is actually no direct quote from any D "slamming" Silver or appearing to be angry at him, as alleged. There is a quote from Krugman at the very end, but that seems to be a comment about the site in general.